Gauging the Labour Force Pulse

March 6, 2019

“If you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go together”. This African proverb is often quoted by Mayor Jim Harrison of Quinte West and it has stuck with me ever since I heard him use it. The Centre for Workforce Development (CFWD) wants to see businesses, job seekers, entrepreneurs and youth go far in this community through collaborative efforts. Whether you are from Bancroft, Picton, Trenton, Belleville, Madoc, Tweed, Napanee, Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte or another community in Hastings, Prince Edward and Lennox and Addington Counties, we need to move forward together on our labour force issues if we are to accomplish the goals the community has set out in the Local Labour Market Plan.

The 2018-2021 three-year strategic Local Labour Market Plan (LLMP) focused on current labour market conditions, community profiles of all three Counties and long range actions to address labour force issues identified. Over the past several months, CFWD partnered on a number of activities that have begun to address the goals and actions outlined. These efforts are just the beginning. The Board is continuing this work throughout the 2019 – 20 fiscal year as we focus on three areas that require more detailed research.

This LLMP Update will identify the actions that have been worked on in 2018 – 19 and the results of the work to date. Not every goal and action saw activity associated with them, however, discussions with community partners continue on developing opportunities to tackle them.

In addition to the update of the Action Plan goals and activities table, this LLMP update will focus on the three key areas: Tourism, Construction and Health Care.

The Employment Ontario Service Provider program updates are once again included as part of keeping the community informed of the substantial work they are doing to help both job seekers and employers focus on their workforce development needs.

Since we want this community to “go far”, I invite you to be a part of helping the community move forward in addressing labour force needs. Read this report! Provide feedback! Get involved!